Let’s be clear ….. avios.com is NOT closing. Your questions answered.

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A disproportionate percentage of my inbox in the last 6-8 weeks has been on the topic of the closure of the avios.com website.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the correspondence from British Airways and Avios on this subject, there is substantial confusion over what is going on. I thought it was worth taking a bit more time today to clarify certain issues.

BELIEF: The avios.com website is closing down

TRUTH: The avios.com website is not closing down, and will actually become far more important than it is at the moment

The thing that is being closed down is the Avios Travel Rewards Programme. This was set up to be the ‘Avios scheme for people who don’t fly’ and there was a hope that it would compete with Clubcard or Nectar. It has failed to do this – not helped by the fact that BA doesn’t fly from the regions – and is closing.

Your 3081xxxxxxxx account will be closed very shortly, if it has not already closed, and the balance moved to a British Airways Executive Club account.

Going forward, avios.com is where members of Vueling Club, Flybe, Aer Lingus AerClub and other Avios-earning schemes – except for British Airways and Iberia – will go to manage their accounts and book redemptions.

BELIEF: I have no way of accessing avios.com once my Avios Travel Rewards Programme account is closed

TRUTH: Not true. You can continue to log in at avios.com – and book flights and make other redemptions – using an Aer Lingus AerClub or Vueling Club account

AerClub and Vueling Club accounts use the same 3081xxxxxxxxxx numbering system as Avios Travel Rewards Programme accounts and you can log-in at avios.com using AerClub or Vueling Club details. Set up a free account at aerlingus.com or vueling.com and test it out.

BELIEF: I can’t transfer Avios to AerClub or Vueling Club (or vice versa) because they don’t appear on the ‘Combine My Avios’ dropdown menu

TRUTH: This is not the case

When you use ‘Combine My Avios’, the menu option for avios.com actually refers to ANY Avios account which starts 3081. As well as Avios Travel Rewards Programme, this includes AerClub, Vueling Club and indeed Avios South Africa.

If you want to move between two schemes which use the Avios platform, ie from AerClub to Vueling Club, you will need to move them via BA or Iberia as an intermediary – you cannot move Avios directly between two different schemes on the Avios platform.

BELIEF: I can no longer earn Avios from Flybe because my Avios Travel Rewards Programme account has been closed and migrated to BA

TRUTH: This is not the case

You can give Flybe ANY Avios account which starts with 3081. If you are flying with Flybe, open an AerClub or Vueling Club account, credit the Avios to that and then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them using the route above.

Flybe will launching its own Avios scheme in the near future which will work in the same way as AerClub and Vueling Club.

BELIEF: I can no longer use avios.com to move Avios between Iberia Plus and British Airways Executive Club, which is often the only functioning route, because my Avios Travel Rewards Programme account has been closed

TRUTH: This is not the case

Simply open an AerClub or Vueling Club account, which operates off avios.com as I described above, and use that as a ‘middle man’ when you use ‘Combine My Avios’

BELIEF: Avios sent to my old avios.com account will be lost now my account is closed

TRUTH: This is not the case

Once you Avios Travel Rewards Programme account is closed, any Avios sent to it will be automatically sent to your BA Executive Club account.

Hopefully this clarifies most of the questions you may still have about the closure of the Avios Travel Rewards Programme. Ask in the comments below if you have any other queries.

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Comments

This answers a question that I had about signing up for e-rewards to nab the 750 avios. It’s been removed from the BA pages but it is still present on the Avios ones. I’ll sign up to AerClub, use that for the Avios account for e-rewards and then combine them over to my BA account

i cleared my avios a/c to BA and have an AerClub a/c with a few avios in it. is there any benefit in transferring to aerclub before avios stops transfers or will it be possible to do so in the future? thought it might be useful for N america in a year or two.

OT: Marriott Travel Packages (sorry to those who are fed up with the level of chat on this topic).

I’ve just had an email from Marriott confirming that my (old) Category 7 certificate has been applied to my reservation at Domes Noruz Chania (new Category 7). This is what I was promised when I spoke to them last Friday, so I’m delighted that they’ve honoured that promise.

It’s a little more complicated than that – you can read more detail in my posts on Fri. In short, I tried to book a Cat 9 package on Fri and attach straight away to a booking at Domes Noruz. The Marriott agent told me repeatedly that all certificates would be honoured at the same category, so persuaded me to buy a Cat 7 package and make a reservation on Fri, but then attach the certificate this week. I was unsurprisingly nervous about that, so got her to confirm it in writing on Fri. In the end, all has worked out fine – and indeed I’m 60K Marriotts points better off! 🙂

Latest update (so far only released via OMAAT!) is that you can now make bookings using Travel Packages (no one month hiatus) and 30k compensation for those losing out (eg old cat 6) will be provided, with 45k if cancelled as before. No ability to upgrade from what they’ve said.

Hi – advice please – I need to book an Aer Lingus flight today. I have already moved my Avios to my BA acc. Where do I book this now? Sorry if it’s stupid question but I’m not up to speed with all the changes! TIA

Thanks for the reply. I called BAEC and although the availability was exactly the same as on avios.com the taxes were indeed different – but very surprisingly more! £285 v £162 on Avios.com. I transferred my Avios back and booked on .com
Thanks for the advice.

You need to ring BA to book if you Avios are in ba.com. Note that BA has worse availability but lower taxes. If the seats are only available via the Avios website (with the higher taxes) you’ll need to move them back via ‘Combine My Avios’ on either avios.com or ba.com.

Thanks for the reply. I called BAEC and although the availability was exactly the same as on avios.com the taxes were indeed different – but very surprisingly more! £285 v £162 on Avios.com. I transferred my Avios back and booked on .com
Thanks for the advice.

Also missing progress bar (annoying as I am within 30 days of year end and I don’t want to trigger it too early) – but if I click on “view earned avios” it shows “YOUR COMPANION VOUCHER STATUS” and the count down is there

As per my earlier comments: from my own experience, the key piece of information that made the match for me between Avios and BA was Date of Birth, along with Name, possibly gender, and possibly email address. When this whole saga started, I couldn’t initially transfer my wife’s Avios to her BA account, because of some “missing data”. After waiting a few days, I tried again, and discovered that the Avios IT team had introduced a pop-up window on logging in, which allowed me to enter and/or confirm the information that was required to make a transfer work – as stated, it was my wife’s Date of Birth that was missing, as it was such an old account (ex-Air Miles). Once this had been entered, the transfer went through without a hitch. So, if either you or your wife logs into your wife’s Avios account, then see if a pop-up window appears. If it does, then fill it in. Otherwise, check your wife’s Avios profile to ensure that her Date of Birth is in there, along with all the other important details. If the transfer still fails, then I have no other suggestions, I’m afraid.

I like the statement page on Avios, helps with chasing unpaid points (as I am currently doing), but I haven’t yet found a similar statement page of unpaid, pending and cancelled Avios on the BAEC site, have I missed something?

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